Future science: Using 3D worlds to visualize data

10:20 AM,
Feb. 20, 2013

In this photo taken Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, in Chicago, brain surgeon Ali Alaraj talks about the first time he viewed the brain using the CAVE2. ?You can walk between the blood vessels,? said the University of Illinois College of Medicine neurosurgeon. ?You can look at the arteries from below. You can look at the arteries from the side". CAVE2 is a system of 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels that encircles the viewer 320 degrees and creates a 3D environment that can take you to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, a flyover of the planet Mars, or through the blood vessels of the brain.

Written by

Carla K. Johnson

Take a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world where a researcher wearing 3D glasses can do all that and more.

In the system, known as CAVE2, an 8-foot-high screen encircles the viewer 320 degrees. A panorama of images springs from 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels, conveying a dizzying sense of being able to touch what's not really there.

As far back as 1950, sci-fi author Ray Bradbury imagined a children's nursery that could ...